A COUPLE who lost their toddler to a severe form of meningitis are pleading for the urgent introduction of a simple vaccination which could have saved her life.

Amy Corps and James Barstow buried 19-month-old Freya, their only child, on Tuesday, after a funeral service at All Saints Church in Highcliffe.

Desperately-ill Freya died from pneumococcal meningitis in the intensive care unit at Southampton General Hospital, after staff battled in vain to save her.

After she suffered severe brain damage, consultants advised the Winchester couple to let their child die in peace.

She died on April 16 tucked up in bed between her parents at Naomi House Children's Hospice in Sutton Scotney.

But as the couple grieved they were shocked to find out a vaccine preventing the disease has been available in this country since 1999.

The jab is routinely given to the over-65s and children regarded as at high risk of pneumococcal infection.

Government experts last January recommended giving the vaccine to all babies, but ministers have not set a date for adding it to the infant vaccination programme.

Miss Corps, 26, who is 30 weeks pregnant with her second child, said: "It is a dreadful disease and discovering that there is a way it can be prevented and Freya could still be with us today was a terrible kick in the teeth."

The former care assistant, who lives in Wykeham Place, Stanmore, added: "This is the only thing we feel we can do for her now.

"In Freya's memory we want to help other children get this vaccine."

The vaccine could save the lives of around 50 children each year in England and Wales killed by the disease. Many more are left severely disabled.

Dr Michael Marsh, director of paediatric intensive care at Southampton, who treated Freya, said the Government should be asked why the vaccine is not offered to babies routinely.

He said: "My heart sinks every time we have a child confirmed with pnuemococcal meningitis, because there is a very high chance of dying.

"It is a devastating disease and anything we can do to reduce the number of cases has got to be done."

Freya had been a happy, healthy baby until three weeks ago.

Then, on April 6, she became violently sick. At first she was taken to see her GP at St Paul's surgery, but was sent home with paracetamol.

When she became lethargic her mother called an ambulance, and after suffering fits on the children's ward at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, meningitis was diagnosed.

Freya was later transferred to Southampton where she was put on a ventilator and dialysis machine as her lungs and kidneys failed.

Her mother said: "We were told she had suffered the most horrendous brain damage and would not have any quality of life. All this from what we thought was a stomach bug.

"The consultants told us the best thing we could do was bring her to the hospice and let her pass away.

"We did not want her to die in the middle of an intensive care unit."

The couple are full of praise for Naomi House where they were able to stay with Freya's body until the funeral.

Miss Corps said: "Freya was quite a shy but delightful little girl. Now there are just the two of us.

"She did not even get to see her brother or sister which is very sad.

"If other children can be saved from this we would like to do what we can. I will definitely get my next baby immunised. It is such a deadly disease."

Infants are already innoculated against Meningitis C and the Hib form of the disease in the six-vaccine package given at two, three and four months.

A Department of Health spokesman said the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which advises ministers, had recommended making the vaccine routine, but more work needed to be done on dosage and timings.

She said: "We have not got a timescale, but in principle it should be introduced into the childhood immunisation programme."